Flagship

Court strikes down Israel reform

Israel’s Supreme Court struck down a proposed law which would have limited judges’ power to overrule the government. The bill was the only part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s sweeping judicial reforms to successfully pass Parliament last year, in the face of huge public protests. Netanyahu is unlikely to get the reforms passed: Once the war is over, 70% of Israelis want him to resign and call early elections. That isn’t likely anytime soon, though. Israel is withdrawing some troops from Gaza, but only to pace itself for a long conflict. Israeli media reported that talks with Hamas over a possible ceasefire were “very far apart,” with the militant group demanding the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops as a precondition for a truce.

Russia aerial assault expands

Russian drones and missiles hit Ukrainian cities overnight, killing four civilians. President Vladimir Putin said it was retaliation for a Ukrainian attack which killed 25 people, and vowed to intensify Moscow’s offensive. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said in an interview with The Economist that Putin’s claims to be winning the war were just a “feeling,” noting that Russia was estimated to have suffered 500,000 casualties in the war. Admitting that 2023’s counter-offensive was less successful than hoped, he expressed frustration at wavering Western support for the war, saying: “Giving us money or giving us weapons, you support yourself. You save your children, not ours.”

Bangladeshi Nobel winner jailed

Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel peace laureate, was sentenced to prison in Bangladesh in a trial critics denounced as politically motivated. Yunus pioneered microfinance banking which is credited with lifting millions out of poverty. But he was charged with breaking labor laws in Bangladesh: The Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who views Yunus as a political rival and who faces elections on Sunday, accused him of “sucking blood” from the poor. In August, 160 world political figures including former U.S. President Barack Obama signed an open letter decrying the charges against Yunus, calling them “a form of political retaliation for his work and dissent.”

Xi’s Taiwan remarks come with vote due

Taiwan’s reunification with China was inevitable, Chinese leader Xi Jinping said in his new year address. The remarks were somewhat more strident than prior ones, though Beijing has always regarded Taiwan as a renegade province to be subsumed, by force if necessary. The timing, however, was notable, coming less than two weeks before Taiwan holds presidential elections which the incumbent party’s candidate — whom Beijing has called a separatist — is expected to win. China watchers also scoured the images of Xi’s office, from where he delivered his speech, for clues as to his upcoming priorities, the South China Morning Post said: Previously unseen photographs of his late father, as well as his wife and daughter, were taken to confirm a focus on traditional family values.

Election season kicks off

This month’s elections in Bangladesh and Taiwan kick off a year in which more than 2 billion people will cast ballots worldwide. The votes, from highly rated democracies such as Finland to autocracies like Russia, will culminate in the world’s most important election, that of the United States: “309 days that will change the world,” according to the American journalist James Fallows. The “marvelous act of political agency,” as the Indian expert Pratap Bhanu Mehta put it, nevertheless sparked worries worldwide, including the implications of a return of Donald Trump, ascendant nationalism, and the impact of culture wars globally. “The case for foreboding,” he wrote in The Indian Express, “is strong.”

Powerful quake hits Japan

A powerful earthquake in western Japan killed at least 48 people, but initial fears of a repeat of the 2011 quake that killed thousands were dispelled after officials lowered tsunami warnings. The authorities were still searching for survivors from Monday’s earthquake, and cautioned that aftershocks could persist for days. The relatively low toll contrasts markedly with similar quakes in poorer countries. “Yes, it’s a tragedy if anyone has died,” a Cambridge University tectonics professor told the BBC. “But it is a triumph that you can have an earthquake this size and very few people are actually going to get killed. … That is an enormous tribute to the integrity of the building industry and everything else in Japan. They take these things extremely seriously.”

Nicaragua church crackdown continues

Nicaraguan police have arrested 14 Catholic priests in recent days, widening a crackdown on the church, which is seen by Managua’s authoritarian ruler as a hub for dissent. In his new year’s day address, Pope Francis said he was “following with concern what is happening in Nicaragua,” spurring some of the detentions. President Daniel Ortega has repressed any criticism since protests in 2018 threatened his regime: Last month, he expelled the International Committee of the Red Cross, a vital aid to political prisoners in the country. The U.S., Nicaragua’s biggest export market, has imposed sanctions on hundreds of officials and the country’s economy.

Semafor’s 2024 World Economy Summit, on April 17-18, will feature conversations with global policymakers and power brokers in Washington, against the backdrop of the IMF and World Bank meetings.

Chaired by former U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein, and in partnership with BCG, the summit will feature 150 speakers across two days and three different stages. Join Semafor for conversations with the people shaping the global economy.

Mandela’s photographer dies

​​Peter Magubane, a South African photographer who documented the cruelties of the country’s apartheid regime, died aged 91. Magubane, who spent almost 600 days in solitary confinement and was ostracized for years by the regime, became Nelson Mandela’s official photographer, giving his work international prominence. Despite his and Mandela’s contributions to making the African National Congress South Africa’s dominant political force, the party has fallen out of favor ahead of presidential elections this year: Its popularity fell below 50% on the back of a crumbling economy, leading to challenges to its three-decade rule, including from a previous party chief. “This ANC is not the ANC of my parents or my grandparents, and it’s not my ANC,” an opposition politician told the Financial Times.

Mickey Mouse copyright expires

Steamboat Willie, the first cartoon featuring Mickey Mouse, entered public domain, 95 years after its release. Disney has fought to keep copyright on its characters, getting Congress to pass laws extending protections, and ensuring that the more widely known Mickey, which was redesigned in the decades after Steamboat, is considered a different character and thus remains under copyright. Still, creators can do what they like with the Steamboat Willie Mickey: Within hours of copyright expiring, a trailer for a comedy slasher-horror movie starring the mouse, Mickey’s Mouse Trap, was released on YouTube.

Sea monster skull found

The six-foot skull of an ancient sea monster went on display after being found in the cliffs of southern England. So many fossils have been found in counties of Dorset and Devon that the shoreline is called the “Jurassic Coast.” Now the remains of a huge pliosaur, a 36-foot-long, 150-million-year-old underwater predator with a bite that could crush cars, had there been any, has been painstakingly extracted from Dorset’s clay-like cliffs. It’s the best-preserved specimen of the species: Other scientists will journey to Dorset to learn how the apex predator lived. The discoverers will be returning: “I stake my life the rest of the animal is there,” the paleontologist who found it told the BBC, but it’s a race against time to find it before it is washed away.

January 14-19, 2024 | Switzerland

Semafor will be on the ground at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, covering what’s happening on the main stages and lifting the curtain on what’s happening behind them.

Sign up to receive our pop-up newsletter: Semafor Davos (and if you’re flying to Zurich let us know so we can invite you to one of Semafor’s private convenings).

• Spanish footballer Jenni Hermoso will testify in a Madrid court in a sexual assault hearing against her country’s former soccer federation chief.
• Major EV makers such as Tesla and Rivian are set to report their fourth-quarter deliveries.
• The Australian opening batsman David Warner begins the final cricket Test of his career, facing Pakistan in his home town of Sydney.

Ian Bremmer is the founder and president of Eurasia Group, which publishes GZERO Daily.

Top travel trends for 2024 will include “star bathing” and home swapping, Condé Nast Traveller predicted. After 2022 and 2023 saw a return to normal travel — and more — following the pandemic years, in 2024 “travellers will be putting what’s important to them front and centre of their plans.” That includes more eco-friendly options — scuba diving to work on conservation projects, for instance — as well as appreciating the natural world, such as by going to places where you can really see the stars. The rise of distance working means more people will travel for longer periods, exchanging homes for a month or more to get to know a new city.

• Ukraine is running out of money. Officials say they may have to delay pay for millions of public servants and pensioners unless Western assistance arrives soon.
• The legal war over Trump’s candidacy grows. But courts and legal experts are divided over whether an obscure constitutional clause applies to the former president.
• Are Russians tired of the war? A new poll shows that 50% of Russians hope that the war with Ukraine will end in 2024.